Even Martha Stewart Isn't Perfect
by missindependent4
Summary: Hermione Weasley always follows everything by the books, but one day she realizes that books aren't always right. One-shot.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything. It belongs to J.K. Rowling and Martha Stewart belongs to herself.

A/N: I don't normally write stuff like this, but it was an idea that had to get written. I got the recipe from the Jodi Picoult novel _Handle With Care._ Please review!

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"_Today we're making Chocolate Raspberry Soufflés! You know, a lot of people have misconceptions about baking. They think it's complicated and one myth about baking is that soufflés are difficult to make. By following my directions and watching step-by-step you can easily make that perfect soufflé! Now let's get started. You can find these ingredients in any grocery store. All you need are raspberries, eggs, sugar, flour, bittersweet chocolate, Chambord liqueur, butter, and sugar." _

_1 pint raspberries, pureed and strained_

_8 eggs separated_

_4 oz sugar_

_3 oz all purpose flour_

_8 oz bittersweet good quality chocolate, chopped_

_2 oz Chambord liqueur_

_2T melted butter_

_sugar for dusting ramekins_

Hermione Granger-Weasley loved knowledge. She was pretty sure that if books were a drug she'd be high everyday and no amount of rehab could break her addiction. Whether it came to potions, history, charms, even divination; which she adamantly refused to believe in even though she read on the subject because she should at least be knowledgeable on the subject, she could not get enough of it. Hermione honestly believed she had the best job in the world because she was Head Researcher for the Ministry. If there was a problem that couldn't be solved and needed more researching, people came to her. If a department was just too busy or didn't have enough people to research a certain topic, they came to her. Her job was absolute bliss.

Even when Hermione came home her growing knowledge didn't stop. Hermione lived by the motto that 'Every day is a learning experience' because wasn't that what life truly was? Every day she learned something new, whether it was when she was working in the garden, cleaning, baking, or caring for her four beautiful children.

_The ingredients were already set out on the counter before her and she listened intently as the blonde haired woman smiled brightly back to her on the television screen. _

"_We have all our ingredients set out and our raspberries have already been pureed and strained so our first step is to heat the puree in a heavy saucepan until it's lukewarm."_

_She moved swiftly and poured the puree in the saucepan, turning the stove setting onto Low. _

"_While we let our puree heat up you can begin to whisk the egg yolk and the sugar into a bowl. Once your puree is heated up let's add in the raspberry puree and flour."_

Hermione adored her four children. They had auburn hair and a spattering of freckles across their face. They were an absolute perfect blend between her and her husband, Ron. The girls even had Ron's blue eyes while their son had her chocolate ones.

When Hermione found out she was pregnant for the first time, only five months after she and Ron were first married, they were both thrilled. She was pretty sure she bought every baby and parenting book there was in Flourish and Blotts and she made sure that she was going to be prepared. Ron had told her that having a baby and being a mother was something she couldn't learn from books and the idea boggled her mind. She had ignored Ron for two days after he told her that. Throughout her pregnancy she followed every single thing the books told her. She exercised four times a week, took pre-natal vitamins, listened to classical music (because it was said classical music made babies more intelligent and musically inclined), and she even took off work six weeks in advance for maternity leave. When Helen was born she was absolutely perfect and she couldn't help, but feel smug in that I-Told-You-So way when even Ron agreed with her.

Even after Helen was born Hermione continued to follow by-the-books in parenting steps. She made sure to breast feed even though it hurt like hell because this would make sure Helen built up an immune system and would be healthy when she was older. She never woke Helen up when she was sleeping, even when it was eight at night and she knew her daughter would be waking up a short while later causing Hermione to lose even more sleep.

"_Once you have whisked all the ingredients together put them back into the saucepan. Cook this on Medium-Low until the mixture becomes thick, like a custard." _

_She obediently followed the directions and watched on the screen as the mixture became thicker. _

"_After this remove the pan from the heat and add in the chocolate until it is completely melted. Then we're going to add in the liqueur. See, now isn't this easy enough to follow? I'm sure yours is coming along perfectly! When we are finished with this let's add plastic over the base to prevent a skin from forming. Now we're going to move on so let's preheat the oven to 425."_

_She quickly did the farenheit conversion in her head and the grills of the stove burned red at the sudden heat._

When Grace was born a year after Helen, and then Elizabeth two years after Grace, things were still going perfectly. Helen and Grace were both old enough for time out so Hermione followed the books and set out an area in the living room area with a bright red mat. Each time the girls disobeyed that had to sit on the mat. Because Helen was four she had to sit for four minutes and since Grace was three she had to sit for three minutes. When Ron came home to find the mat he asked what exactly Hermione thought she was doing and she informed him that it was a great plan to make the girls learn that when they disobeyed, the mat meant consequences. Ron didn't say anything.

"_We're going to butter six ramekins and dust sugar over it. Perfect! Let's whip the whites of the eggs until they are stiff peaks and then add in the rest of the sugar, which should be one ounce. Now is when you are going to see the mixtures beginning to combine. Neither one will give up its substance so the darkness of the chocolate will come together with the foam of the egg whites and vice versa. This is going to turn out just lovely. Once we've done this we're going to put the mixture in the ramekins, about ¼ less than the rim then it's time to bake them for twenty minutes!"_

Hermione had done everything by the books, just like she had with her three previous pregnancies, but when Will was born something was _not right._ He came out too small and the medi-wizards told her and Ron that he was having trouble breathing. Hermione didn't understand because it never said in the books that things could still turn out wrong even if you did everything right.

Will had to stay at St. Mungo's for a week after that and the medi-wizards told her that he was going to have medical issues growing up. He would sometimes have breathing problems and he was always be smaller than other children his age. Flying would be hard for him to do because of the high altitudes and any other physical activities would take a toll on his body if he did them for too long of a time.

Ron had told her it was genetics, they did nothing wrong, even she should know that. And Hermione did know that, but she had done _everything _right so why did things turn out wrong?

Once Hermione read all the books she could about how to make Will have the most normal life possible Hermione felt confident that, even with this slight problem, things would still be just fine.

But then, when Ron had wanted just one more child a few years ago they had trouble conceiving. Once again Hermione ran to the books to try and figure out why they couldn't. After a year of trying Ron tried to convince her that maybe four was enough and that they just weren't meant to have one more. Hermione refused to listen and dragged him to St. Mungo's where she was informed that she couldn't have any more children. Hermione was devastated because she was perfectly healthy and perfectly healthy people just didn't stop having babies.

After the baby incident things between her and Ron began to change. He became more distant and they weren't as physical as they used to be. Hermione figured that, because they had been married for eight years at the time, they were just going through a rut in their marriage. So she went to the books and read up on how to fix this problem. For a few months after that things went back to normal, but slowly Ron began to 'work' more and Hermione saw less and less of him. One night she even found him sleeping on the couch.

Just a few days ago they had invited Harry and Draco over for dinner along with their two children because Ron insisted that they hadn't seen the couple in quite some time. It was when she realized that things were _wrong._

She had known one thing for sure and that was Harry and Draco did not go by any of the books she had ever read. For one thing they hated each other up until seventh year and then suddenly they were dating. Hermione had no qualms about Harry dating a man, but Malfoy? This definitely was not part of any book she ever read. There was no book about being enemies one day and the next day dating. When they got married right after they graduated she still didn't understand.

When they came over for dinner Hermione saw how happy they were. They had been married for thirteen years and they had two beautiful boys, both with pale skin, silver eyes, and straight black hair. James was six and Liam was two and Hermione also knew that they did not follow anything in the baby books. Hermione had given them several of them when they first had James. Harry confessed four months after James was born that neither he nor Draco read them when she berated him one day about them. Both boys were healthy and she saw how much Harry and Draco loved them. She also saw how much they loved each other.

It was almost too sweet really, but Hermione was a girl and even she could not be envious of them. She knew they had sex regularly because she asked Harry one day when they went out for lunch. Harry had been open about the topic and when he told her she couldn't help but be somewhat jealous since she and Ron did not anymore. She also knew that at least once a year ever since James was born he and Draco left James and Liam with Narcissa and Lucius for a week so that they could get away together. It was when they came over that she realized they never seemed to have left their honeymoon stage of their relationship and it didn't seem to be ending anytime soon.

_The woman opened the stove and closed her eyes dramatically as she pretended to sniff the air to take in the wonderful scent. _

"_Don't they smell delicious? You'll know they're finished when they are golden brown on the top with a flaky edge and they have risen. Let them cool for a few minutes." Of course on television these things were already done so when the lady immediately began to put the soufflé on the plate after she took it out of the oven she scowled at her. She watched the screen as the lady took a bite out of her soufflé._

"_Mmm! So good! Baking a soufflé is as simple as that folks. Until next time, I'm Martha Stewart." Martha beamed on screen for a moment before going back to her soufflé and taking another bite. _

Yesterday Hermione and Ron had taken their children to King's Cross Station to watch Helen and Grace go off to Hogwarts. Helen would be in her second year as a Gryffindor and it was Grace's first year. After they had departed they flooed over to The Burrow and dropped off Elizabeth and Will so they could spend a few days with Molly and Arthur.

Today when Hermione had went into the bathroom to brush her teeth to find her toothpaste empty she went to Ron's drawer, to use his tube of toothpaste. That was when she found his wedding ring, sitting there right next to his toothbrush and the toothpaste. She had wondered when he had taken it off. Surely not yesterday before the children left? Wouldn't they have noticed?

Hermione continued on as if she found nothing wrong. She would look at the books later to consult what exactly had gone wrong with her marriage and when.

_Ten minutes later Hermione decided to take the soufflé out since it had plenty of time to cool. As she picked around the edges, trying to be careful, the soufflé caved in. She sighed and moved on to the next one, figuring she would have to be more careful. Once again, it caved in. One after another they each caved in until it was a soufflé no more. Hermione blinked and then looked around her kitchen. Her eyes wandered back to the soufflé and she wondered where she went wrong. She had followed all the directions exactly as she had been told to. So what happened? She didn't understand and she didn't realize that she began to cry. Had she missed some ingredient, did she puree the raspberries too long? She wasn't quite sure where along the way she did something wrong, but she knew she had. _

_Hermione glanced up at the television screen to where she had paused it. The smiling face of Martha Stewart beamed down at her._

That was when realized that even Martha Stewart wasn't perfect.


End file.
